• Question from:Charlie Dobbie

Hi, we have a small pond filled with frogs, newts, tadpoles, snails and various inverts including damselfly larvae. This year I've noticed behaviour from a robin that I've not seen before.

This fellow has taken to perching near the pond, swooping in low over the water and picking what appear to be damselfly larvae off the surface.

I've never seen a robin - or indeed any other bird - take insects from our pond like this before. Is this common behaviour?

(We don't have a vast number of damselfly larvae, and they're already pressured from the newts, so I don't think this is a sustainable food source. At the very least I'm expecting a big drop in damselflies this summer.)

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  • University of Exeter
  • Posts: 1,011

Interesting observation! I have not seen this behaviour before from robins and I do not think it is common. they do tend to swoop  down and pick up insects/inverts, but usually from the ground not the water.

Unfortunately I can't find anything much in the scientific literature to indicate just how uncommon (or not) this feeding strategy is.